'Nut Case' trial set to begin / Conviction could put 21-year-old on Death Row

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Sunny Thach had just helped his wife carry their laundry inside when he remembered one more bag of baby clothes still in the car and went to retrieve it.

He was shot dead in his front yard minutes later, begging for his life as his wife and toddler looked on, by robbers who took $31. His slaying, police say, capped a bloody 10-week crime spree in late 2002 and early 2003 that included five slayings and scores of robberies throughout Oakland by six alleged killers who called themselves the Nut Cases.

The deaths came during a year that saw homicides increase by 30 percent in Oakland, and were committed by men motivated largely by the thrill of killing, roaming the city looking for victims and joking that they were single-handedly driving up the tally, police said.

The man police said pulled the trigger in most of the crimes, Demarcus Ralls, 21, is to go on trial Tuesday. If convicted of Thach's killing, Ralls could become the youngest person on Death Row and one of the youngest sentenced to death since California resumed capital punishment in 1977.

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"This small gang of thugs drove up Oakland's violent crime rate by themselves," Mayor Jerry Brown said at the time of the arrest. "These arrests probably saved some lives and made Oakland a much safer place."

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Horner has issued a gag order in the case, barring police, prosecutors and Ralls' attorney from commenting. But court documents and the suspects' own statements to police show the Nut Cases were driven by little more than the thrill of killing and the bravado of boasting to friends about what they'd done.

Ralls nonchalantly described to police investigators his role in the deaths of five people and the robbing of at least 23 others as the Nut Cases terrorized Oakland for 10 weeks ending in their arrest in January 2003, police said.

The suspects told police they would spend their time getting high and playing the violent video game "Grand Theft Auto III" -- which rewards players for committing crimes -- and then would act out what they'd done when they grew bored with the game.

Ralls, who turned 18 during the crime spree, is charged with five murders, two attempted murders, and 18 of the robberies. His five co-defendants are expected to be tried later this year.

Horner rejected an effort by Ralls' attorney, Deborah Levy, to suppress his incriminating statement to police which includes references to shooting Thach.

Reached by phone, a woman who identified herself as Ralls' mother declined to comment. Several weeks after his arrest, Deborah Colbert, the aunt of three of the alleged killers, defended the young men she helped raise.

"The things they say about them are too bizarre to be true," she said at the time. "They are not Nut Case killers. They don't rob people. They never have."

All of the Nut Case defendants are related except for Leon "Twan" Wiley, 28, the man police call the ringleader. They include Ralls' half-brothers, Joe Ralls, 29, and Jhomari Sutton, 23; their cousin, Deonte "Oink" Donald, 20; and their sister-in-law, 28-year-old Aminah Dorsey-Colbert.

Wiley and Joe Ralls face the death penalty. The other three face life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.

The Nut Cases started as "a little group of dudes that used to sell dope on 80th" Avenue in East Oakland, according to the transcript of Wiley's interview with police. Wiley and several other members sport tattoos showing the Planters logo Mr. Peanut and the words "Nut Case."

Sometime late in the summer of 2002, police said, they realized robbing drug dealers and illegal immigrants was easier and more lucrative than selling crack cocaine.

At first, they sought targets they believed were unlikely to report the crimes. Cruising the city in a blue 1977 Buick Regal, they widened their net, seeking victims in more affluent areas, police said.

Their victims were as diverse as Oakland -- blacks, whites, Latinos and Asians, ranging from day laborers waiting for buses to professionals driving expensive cars.

It took a while for the police to realize the same crew was behind the crimes, because the robbers struck all over town and their victims had no apparent connection.

The first slaying took place Oct. 24. Police said Demarcus Ralls admitted to killing Joseph Mabrey, 36, a youth basketball coach who was having an affair with Dorsey-Colbert -- who admitted to helping arrange the shooting.

Ralls, according to his police interview, said he asked Mabrey for a ride, led him to a dark dead-end street and killed him.

The next homicide victim, according to court records, was Douglas Ware, 19, who died Dec. 18 when the Nut Cases drove up to a crowded West Oakland street corner seeking a young man nicknamed "Nard," apparently intent on shooting him.

When Nard wasn't at his usual corner, the crew left to rob a few people. Demarcus Ralls bragged to police about the electronic items he'd stolen in a home invasion robbery. Later that night, they returned and Nard still wasn't around. So they decided to open fire on the crowd, Demarcus Ralls told police, because they could.

"The people (we) shot did nothing to deserve it," Ralls told police, according to court documents.

On Dec. 27, Leon Wiley was at his girlfriend's house in West Oakland while a loud holiday party was going on in a nearby patio. A guest there invited Wiley's girlfriend to join them -- infuriating Wiley, who stormed over to the house. But the guest who made the invitation had already left.

Michael Vassar, who witnessed the incident, told the grand jury that Wiley "asked, 'What's up with your homeboy?' and then pointed a rifle at me. The armed man said he was from deep East Oakland and he was a Nut Case."

Demarcus Ralls told police that he and Joe Ralls, on Wiley's orders, showed up at the party less than an hour later and fired 30 rounds from an AR15 semi-automatic rifle into the front door.

Keith Mackie-Harris, 14, who had begged his family to let him go to the party to play with his cousin's new Xbox, was shot in the head. Jerry Duckworth, 24, a family friend who used his body to shield the boy, died when he was shot six times. Vassar was seriously wounded and has since left California to avoid retribution for cooperating with police.

As violent as the Nut Cases were, the night of Jan. 6, 2003, was especially bad, investigators said. It began in Berkeley, where police said the crew robbed three people outside the Ashby BART Station. Minutes later, they robbed and beat another man, then drove to Piedmont, where they pistol-whipped a man walking home from the Grand Lake movie theater.

Then they headed to a neighborhood just east of Lake Merritt, where they had committed robberies in the past, police said.

Cindy Li testified she was standing on Sixth Avenue near her broken Ford Taurus with the hood popped open when two Nut Cases approached, demanded money and started rifling through her pockets.

Just down the block, Sunny Thach was carrying the last load of laundry, a bag full of clothes for his 11-month-old daughter, Stephanie, when the Nut Cases approached.

Thach's wife, Sylvia Tang, who testified before a grand jury that she was standing in the doorway of their apartment, witnessed the incident and screamed.

"He shot Sunny in the head, and then he tried to shoot me," said Tang, who ducked with their toddler, avoiding the bullets.

Both Deonte Donald and Demarcus Ralls played down their roles in the killing. Donald said he fired into the air, while Ralls told police he shot at Thach but did not try to kill him.

Jhomari Sutton told police "back at the van, (Demarcus and Deonte) said they were sorry for shooting the man, but the man refused to give them money, so they had to do what they had to do."

A man who witnessed the commotion on Sixth Avenue from his window gave police the Buick's license number, which ultimately led investigators to break the case a week later.

SUSPECTS

Jhomari Sutton

Aminah Dorsey-Colbert

Not pictured: Leon "Twan" Wiley, Joe Ralls, Deonte "Oink" Donald

VICTIMS

Douglas Ware

Jerry Duckworth

Keith Mackie-Harris

Sunny Thach

Not pictured: Joseph Mabrey

Nut Cases: A bloody crime spree

Six young people who called themselves the Nut Cases roamed Oakland for 10 weeks in late 2002 and early 2003, killing five people and contributing to a spike in homicides in the city, police say.

Oct. 24, 2002

Joseph Mabrey was found shot to death in his car parked in the 3200 block of Storer Avenue.

Dec. 18, 2002

Douglas Ware was standing in a group of people in the 1000 block of Kirkham Street when gunmen inside a car sprayed the area with bullets.

Dec. 27, 2002

Keith Mackie-Harris and Jerry Duckworth were killed at a holiday party at 800 block of Campbell Steet in West Oakland.

Jan. 6, 2003

Sunny Thach was shot to death as he pleaded with robbers for his life in front of his home in the 1900 block of Sixth Avenue.